Hand controlled computer peripheral pointing devices are very popular among users of graphics computer application programs, such as CAD applications and paint programs. These pointing devices may take the form of digitizers, pressure pens, light pens, or a mouse, and may require a special tablet or writing surface. People now use a computer mouse to paint a picture. For most graphic input to a computer they use it as a pen to draw a line, or as a brush to paint a picture.
The mouse, being the most common pointing device, is very popular because of its capability of being a relative positioning device, as opposed to an absolute positioning device, such as a light pen, pressure pen or digitizer. Thus, a mouse can be used on any flat surface, such as a desk top, since the special tablet associated with absolute positioning devices is not required
However, the mouse, despite its simplicity and wide acceptance among computer pointing device users, is still limited in its ability to permit the user to draw or paint as in real life sketching or painting. That is, it is not able to vary line or brush stroke width, color or intensity.
For example, to begin drawing or painting with a mouse, the user presses a digital button on the computer mouse to simulate contact between the pen or brush and the paper (or canvas), after which the computer mouse is moved across a flat surface to simulate the movement of the pen (or paint brush). Since the digital button on the mouse can only represent two states, i.e. either a contact or non-contact state, the user is limited to the intensity of the line that he or she may draw or paint. That is, they cannot change the width, color or intensity of a line during mouse movement as they can during a free hand drawing or sketch.
A computer mouse is also used as a point and click device, wherein the mouse is moved by the user across a flat work surface, thus moving the cursor on the screen to a particular location or to a particular item. People use the computer mouse to point to an item on the computer screen and then click the button to enter that particular location or select that particular item. This interface technique provides a convenient way for the user to select options on the computer screen, such as in pull-down menu applications, and hence has been widely accepted since it is very convenient for the user. But when commands are selected in this point and click way, the user's hand must hold the mouse; hence it is taken away from the computer keyboard. Thus problems occur when a computer mouse pointing device is used to select a position on the computer screen and a command must also be given to effect a desired result in the applications program. The user must then move his/her hand back to the keyboard and press the requested function key, thus negativing the convenience aspect of the mouse.
Additionally, the computer applications program may require that the user to key in numeric data since the computer can not display all of the integers. When this situation happens, the user must move his hand back to the keyboard to key in the requested or required data after which he moves his hand back to the computer mouse in order to use the point and click technique again. This results in a lot of time wasted and the potential for additional time spent on correcting mistakes during the busy and confused movement of the user's hand between the mouse and the keyboard.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved hand-controlled computer peripheral pointing device which gives the user the ability to better simulate free hand drawing or painting on a computer screen.
There is also a need in the art for a hand controlled computer peripheral pointing device having the capability of entering digital information directly from the pointing device and thus obviating the need to return back to the keyboard for inputting these values.